1978 Australian Capital Territory
self-government referendum

25 November 1978
Proposal A: That self-government be granted to the Australian Capital Territory by delegating functions to a locally elected legislative body in the stages set out in the statement, published in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 24 October 1978, for the purposes of sub-section 43(1) of the Referendum (Self-government) Ordinance 1978. Proposal B: That a locally elected legislative body be established in the Australian Capital Territory with local government-type legislative and executive functions. Proposal C: That the present arrangements for governing the Australian Capital Territory should continue for the time being.
Results
Choice Votes % Present arrangements 69,893 63.75% Self-government 33,480 30.54% Local government 6,268 5.72% Valid votes 109,641 98.31% Invalid or blank votes 1,888 1.69% Total votes 111,529 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 130,522 85.45%

The1978 Australian Capital Territory self-government referendum was a referendum held on 25 November 1978, asking voters in theAustralian Capital Territory (ACT) whether the territory should be grantedself-governance.^[1] Three options were presented − Proposal A (self-government), Proposal B (local government) and Proposal C ('present arrangements').^[2]

63.8% of ACT voters chose to support the present arrangements, compared to 30.5% for self-government and 5.7% for local government. As a result, no change was made to the governing structure.^[3] The ACT was latergranted self-governance in 1989.^[4][5]

The election was conducted usingpreferential voting, with voters numbering all options in the order of their preferred governance model.^[6] Voting wascompulsory.^[7] The proposal required 50% (plus 1) of the vote to pass.^[8][9]

Residents of theJervis Bay Territory, which was part of thefederal electorate of Fraser at the time, were not eligible to vote in the referendum.^[10]

• ACT Labor Party^[11]
• ACT Liberal Party^[12]
• Australian Democrats^[13]

• Council of Social Services of the ACT^[12]

• All 18 members of theACT Legislative Assembly^[14][15][16]
• Sir Billy Snedden (FederalLiberal MP andSpeaker of the House of Representatives)^[17]

• John Haslem (FederalLiberal MP forCanberra)^[12]
• John Knight (Liberalsenator for the ACT)^[12]

• No Change for Canberra Committee^[18]

• Adrian Howie (ACT Liberal Party financial director)^[12]
• Tony Rothewell (ACT Liberal Party campaign director)^[12]

• ACT Sports Council^[19]

• Referendums in the Australian Capital Territory
• 1978 referendums
• November 1978 in Australia
• 1970s in the Australian Capital Territory

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